Conventional headphones include one or two speaker assemblies, each having an audio driver that produces audible sound waves using a magnet, coil, and diaphragm. Each speaker assembly is mounted in an ear-cup housing, and a foam or other soft material is provided on the side of the ear-cup housing that will abut against the ear and/or head of a person wearing the headphone. The positive and negative electrical terminals for the audio driver are respectively soldered to ends of wires, which extend to an audio jack (e.g., a tip-sleeve (TS) connector, a tip-ring-sleeve (TRS) connector, a tip-ring-ring-sleeve (TRRS) connector, etc.). The audio jack may be coupled to a media player such as a mobile phone, a digital media player, a computer, a television, etc., and the audio signal is transmitted to the audio driver in the speaker assembly within the headphone through the wires. Thus, the audio driver is permanently installed within the headphone, and is not configured to be removed without destructing the permanent solder coupling of the wires to the terminals of the audio driver.
The acoustic performance of a headphone is conventionally a function of both the audio driver, as well as the configuration of the speaker assembly and the ear-cup housing within which the driver is disposed. The speaker assembly and the ear-cup housing of conventional headphones typically define acoustical cavities that affect the acoustics of the headphone. Thus, the manufacturer of the headphones may design the ear-cup housing and speaker assembly of a headphone, for use with a selected audio driver, so as to provide the headphone with acoustics deemed desirable by the manufacturer.